‘Beyonce’ Has Already Been Pirated Over 240,000 Times

We don't think Mrs. Carter is going to like this -- though then again, she may not care! Beyonce's self-titled album, 'Beyonce,' has already been pirated over 240,000 times since its release on Dec. 13.To put it into perspective, that's about the same number of units that got Miley Cyrus to debut at No. 1 with 'Bangerz.' Holy cow!

MusicMetric (via Billboard) estimates that if those copies had been purchased instead of pirated, it would have netted about another $3.8 million if they were sold at $15.99 a pop. Of course, it's nearly impossible to tell if those who pirated the album would actually buy it if it were unavailable online for free, but that's still a huge number.

Record labels have been assessing the BitTorrent data to see where the most pirates are -- but not necessarily to prosecute them.

"The usefulness of BitTorrent data is that it allows record labels to have an incredibly detailed insight into where their artists are popular – right down to the town," MusicMetric's Chief Executive Gregory Mead explained. "Although the file-sharing numbers may be high, it will be possible to translate many of these into buyers."

Still, Bey's not hurting too much. She's already sold over 991,000 copies within the first two weeks of the top-secret visual album's release, topping the charts for two weeks in a row. To quote the Queen Bey, "Gotdayum gotdayum gotdayum!"